The present invention relates to a device for reception of GPS (Global Positioning System) position signals on board a motor vehicle.
The installation of GPS position signal receiver devices on board motor vehicles is becoming widely diffused in recent times.
Such reception devices typically include microstrip antennae, which are essentially bi-dimensional. Such microstrip antennae are usually installed on the windscreen or the instrument panel of the motor vehicle.
The installation of microstrip antennae on a windscreen is inconvenient on motor vehicles having a strongly inclined windscreen. Such inclination in fact results in a loss of gain in reception.
The installation of microstrip antennae on the instrument panel can present disadvantages such as a reduction in gain, and therefore of the useful signal level when the vehicle is travelling down a hill, this gain loss being due to the screening effect of the roof of the passenger compartment.
One object of the present invention is therefore to provide a new device for the reception of GPS position signals on board a motor vehicle which makes it possible to obviate the above-indicated disadvantages of prior art arrangements.
A further object of the invention is to suggest the use, for the reception of GPS position signals, of a new and convenient type of antenna.
It is a further object of the invention to propose convenient embodiments of such an antenna.
These and other objects are achieved according to the invention with the device the characteristics of which are defined in the following claims.